Holmes2009

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Holmes2009
BibType INCOLLECTION
Key Holmes2009
Author(s) Janet Holmes, Tina Chiles
Title “Is that right?”: questions and questioning as control devices in the workplace
Editor(s) Alice F. Freed, Susan Ehrlich
Tag(s) EMCA, questioning, workplace studies
Publisher Oxford University Press
Year 2009
Language
City Oxford
Month
Journal
Volume
Number
Pages 187–210
URL Link
DOI 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195306897.003.0009
ISBN
Organization
Institution
School
Type
Edition
Series
Howpublished
Book title “Why Do You Ask?”: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse
Chapter

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Abstract

This chapter, written by Janet Holmes and Tina Chiles, examines the frequency, distribution, and function of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings. It reviews previous work on questions, describes the methodology used to collect the workplace discourse discussed in this analysis, and addresses what counts as a question for the study. The authors use a taxonomy of question functions to compare the frequency and distribution of questions in New Zealand workplace meetings to their distribution in previous studies of American casual conversations between friends. With this as a background, the chapter then examines the ways in which managers use questions as control devices in workplace meetings. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the contribution of controlling questions at the microlevel, in the detailed dynamics of managing meeting discourse, and also at the macrolevel of instantiating power relations in specific communities of practice.

Notes